Chapter Seventeen

“This is creepy,” Kiran muttered as we walked through an empty alley with overfilling garbage cans lining both sides. Illegible graffiti was scrawled along the walls of the one-way street, making it difficult to see what the original color was supposed to be. When we reached the end, Kiran looked at us in a ‘so what’ way.

Ren grinned at me and pushed a garbage can against the wall in front of us. He stepped into a ridge in the rectangular ‘can’ and pulled himself up, scaling the wall easily. Balancing on the top of the wall was no easy feat as it was barely a feet wide, but Ren looked nonplussed and gestured for us to do the same. I put my foot in the same ridge as Ren did and stood on top of the plastic bin in a matter of seconds. This procedure was familiar to me despite the new footholds and I was glad my body remembered how to get up. I stepped on the sturdy pile of wooden boxes that started from the ground and ended a few feet above the trashcan to make climbing the last bit easier. Hooking my fingers onto two wooden posts that were permanently drilled in, I pulled myself up and stood on the top of the wall near Ren. Kiran was surprisingly agile as well and got up with ease. After stepping on the wooden boxes, he barely had to pull himself up since he was so tall. I admired how Kiran accepted the different challenges of getting to our district no matter how weird it was, placing his full trust in our hands.

We wobbled around like penguins to turn around and face the opposite side.

“Wow,” Kiran breathed.

Our hideout was nothing short of spectacular. Behind the suspicious alley wall was another wall of barbed wire, but after that was space. Space to do whatever you wanted. There used to be a schoolhouse here in the 1920’s, but it was abandoned and left for us to use. We had fixed it up and added furniture, wi-fi, and electrical appliances so any of us could escape here whenever we needed too. A dirt track was couple hundred feet away for us to train and run on but besides that, everything was space. Everything was lush, green-grassed space.

“Where is everyone?” I asked Ren. To answer my question, he wolf whistled loudly once, then twice, and people started running out of the cabin.

“Is he your boyfriend, Khloe?” someone grinned and snickered like an idiot.

Before I could say anything, Dani snorted and said, “Do you really think Khloe would have a boyfriend? Don’t be ridiculous.” A playful smile was evident on her face and I’m glad there were no hard feelings after I left.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I mimicked in a falsetto and wrinkled my nose at her. “Whatever, Danielle,” I grinned then stuck my tongue out at her. “I could get a boyfriend if I wanted to.”

Kiran choked and broke out laughing, leaning over and teetering precariously on the edge of the wall. We all jumped from the wall; well Ren and I jumped, Kiran did more of a fall and sort of landed on his feet. He rolled up against the grass and pounded a fist on the earthy floor; laughing so hard it was silent.

“It’s not funny!” I protested.

The person I was directing my glares at rolled on his back to face up and let his laughter subside into soft chuckles. He grinned at me lazily from the ground once he calmed down. “Whatever you say, Khloe.”